Teresa, our favorite elephant just arrived. My wife and I absolutely love it. So much more special in person. Fantastic! We can hardly wait to see the next two. Thanks again. — G. Callan, San Diego CA

Artist Comments: This painting is the first one of three commission paintings I painted for a client who lives in San Diego, California. He first contacted me about another elephant painting that I had painted several years back called Raging African Elephant. Since that one had already sold, he commissioned me to do the one above. While I was working on this painting, this same client commissioned two more paintings of Africa.

The links below will take you to the other two paintings that are part of this commissioned group.

Mount Kilimanjaro Rising

Victoria Falls, Africa

Other paintings of Africa that I’ve created are found in my blog article called Adventures In Africa Collection.

Elephants are the largest of all land animals and have an average life span of 50 to 70 years. There are only two distinct types of elephants — African and Asian. Of these two varieties, African elephants are the largest. The African variety have larger ears than their Asian cousin. Their ears look like the African continent and are used to radiate heat away from their body. Asian elephant ears are smaller and rounded.

African elephants prefer to stay in herds of 12 to 20 and the majority of them live on the Savannah. Both the male and female African elephants grow tusks. They can grow to more than 12 feet tall and weigh up to about 7 tons (14,000 pounds).

Males are called bulls, females are cows, and a baby is called a calf. When a calf is born, it can weigh 200 pounds and stand 3 feet tall. Gestation is about 22 months. The females are extremely social and take very good care of their offspring.